Part II: Tapping the Potential of Adult Stem Cells, and Summary

Lecture Overview During embryogenesis, a single fertilized oocyte gives rise to a multicellular organism whose cells and tissues have adopted differentiated characteristics or fates to perform the specified functions of each organ of the body. As embryos develop, cells that have acquired their particular fate proliferate, enabling tissues and organs to grow. Even after an animal is fully grown, however, many tissues and organs maintain a process known as homeostasis, where as cells die, either by natural death or by injury, they are replenished. This remarkable feature has ancient origins, dating back to the most primitive animals, such as sponges and hydrozoans. The fabulous ability of an embryo to diversify and of certain adult tissues to regenerate throughout life is a direct result of stem cells, nature's gift to multicellular organisms. More >>

Speaker Bio Elaine Fuchs is a world leader in skin biology and its human genetic disorders, which include skin cancers and life-threatening genetic syndromes such as blistering skin disorders. Fuchs focuses on the molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and differentiation of the epidermis and its appendages from multipotent stem cells. Throughout her studies, she has used the basic biology that she uncovers to elucidate how perturbations of these mechanisms result in disease. She has systematically applied molecular and genetic approaches to these problems. In doing so, Fuchs pioneered the use of "reverse genetics," an unconventional and now textbook approach to start with understanding how proteins function and then work up to the human diseases they cause when defective. She initially conceived and applied this strategy to elucidate the functions and genetic basis of the first intermediate filament disorder, now a group of nearly 20 related but distinct human disorders that affect not only skin, but also muscle, the nervous system, liver and other tissues and organs of the body. More recently, she has applied her findings to devise approaches for identifying, isolating and characterizing the multipotent stem cells from skin and determine how they respond to various external cues to select their fates to become hair follicles, sebaceous glands or epidermis. In facing the problem of progressing from a stem cell to a tissue, Fuchs' laboratory now tackles how cells coordinate changes in transcription, cell polarity, adhesion and cytoskeletal dynamics. She has greatly accelerated the transition of dermatology into a modern day science, and takes an active interest in how her research can be used in a clinical setting. She has published over 250 papers, mostly in high profile scientific and medical journals.More >>